By Lookout Staff

March 26, 2012 -- Two Southern California men were arrested Friday when they were indicted for allegedly defrauding Santa Monica-based Lionsgate Entertainment out of $2 million in an advertising kickback scheme.

Roccia James Cuccia of Downey and Larry D. Collins of Northridge face 14 charges including wire fraud, money laundering and tax evasion in a scheme involving the purchases of cardboard advertising displays, the FBI said Friday.

Cuccia and Collins caused Lionsgate to lose approximately $2,064,000, including ten illegal wire transfers of funds by Collins totaling more than $750,000, according to the indictment. A portion of  the take was wired to Cuccia..

Cuccia allegedly used some of the funds to purchase a 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid and a 2006 Mercedes-Benz R350, which federal agents seized on Friday, the indictment alleges. Cuccia also failed to report his portion of the funds as income on his 2006 and 2007 federal tax returns.

The scheme involving Cuccia, a buyer for Lionsgate, and Collins, a vendor, was uncovered in an investigation by the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Santa Monica Police Department.

The indictment alleges that Cuccia used Collins to supply cardboard advertising displaying Lionsgate DVD and Blue Ray disks at retail stores, then altered company computer files to inflate the purchase orders.

A third party received payment for the orders and wired a large percentage of the over-billed amounts to Collins, who in turn wired some of the money to Cuccia's bank account, according to the indictment.